


Roommates

by Inunanna



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2018-07-27 13:29:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7619941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inunanna/pseuds/Inunanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagome and Inuyasha are forced to live together after their respective roommates, Miroku and Sango, decide to live together and switch apartments. They soon realize this may be a better deal on their part. AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part. 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. And I do not intent to gain any kind retribution of for this work of fanfiction.

~~0o0o0o0o0o0o~~

**1\. Change of plans**

It was a sunny morning, just like any other morning when something started to make Kagome nervous. She looked at her best friend and roommate Sango, she was acting weird. Weird not as if something inside her head wasn't working as it should, but as if Sango wanted to get on her good side. And that was scary, really scary.

Sango had woken up early than Kagome, itself was a remarkable situation because Kagome's classes started at 7am while Sango's didn't start until 1pm. And today, Sango had woken up early, made breakfast and coffee. Two things that didn't mix well with Kagome's friend. Sango always asked for the afternoon classes because she was up most part of the night and she always said that she didn't believe in breakfast. That was part of why this whole ordeal was weird and scary.

"What's wrong with you?" Kagome asked as she was pushed, rather forcefully to her favorite chair by the small of her back.

"Ohh! Me? Nothing!" Sango waved her hand in front of Kagome's face.

"Is someone sick? Are you gonna tell me bad news?" Kagome's mind was racing, thinking about every other possibility. "Are you in trouble? Is Miroku in trouble?"

"Nah! Don't worry!" Said Sango again, but Kagome noted she was nervous. Kagome knew that if she didn't push Sango to tell her, this would take hours, hours that she didn't want to waste.

"If you don't tell me now, whatever it is, I'm going to say no." Kagome used her most serious face and used the voice that made the unruliest child listen.

Sango sat down in the other side of the bar and looked at Kagome's blue eyes with the best pleading eyes she had. "I want to live with Miroku…"

After the admission the house was filled with silence. The youngest woman's head started turn thinking about what that would mean for her.

Around the things that popped in her head was: the rent, she didn't make enough money to move out, this complex was really cheap because it was for college students and really close to the campus. She didn't want Miroku to move in with them, according to the lease agreement only two people were allowed per apartment, and after some unpleasant occasions where she found them naked on the kitchen and living room, Kagome had asked them Miroku to keep their apartment business free.

Kagome suddenly thought about something that was sure to make Sango think things better. Sango's father!

Kagome smiled internally knowing she had the best argument.

"But Sango. What about your father?" Sango's shoulders slumped as her friend kept talking "You know the only way he let you move out of the family home was because I was going to be your roommate, your only roommate. HE is not going to let you move out."

Sango looked at her with a serious look in her eyes. A look that told Kagome her friend was dead serious about her decision "Kag, he doesn't need to know…"

Kagome was left speechless, Sango had never, not even once in her life, go against her father wishes. Instead of going behind his back and do something she really wanted. She pestered her father until he allowed her to do it. It had been like that her whole life. Even when they wanted to move out, it had taken her months to get his father approval. Only then they moved out.

But now, now she wanted it so much that was thinking of do it behind his father's back. That fact scared Kagome the most.

"Sango…" she grabbed the oldest woman's hands in her own. "Are you sure?" Sango only nodded once.

Kagome let out a tired sight, and looked at their joined hands, thinking she would regret this. "If you go, then I need to move out or put an advertising looking for a roommate. I can't afford this alone"

She expected an empathic expression to be shown in Sango's face, but she was beaming with happiness. "Don't worry Kagome!" the woman said patting her friend hands "we have the solution for that"

Sango stood up and walked to the kitchen, where she picked up a plate with pancakes and syrup. "Eat, and don't worry. We will take care of your roommate situation.

Maybe it was the secretive tone she used or the fact she used "we". She wondered if that should make her feel nervous or not.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Two streets down another pair of friends were having the same conversation, but with different methods.

"What the fuck are you suggesting, Miroku?" Inuyasha shouted across the table with his mouth full or Ramen.

Miroku had woken up early too, and he knew that the only thing he could cook to make his friend happy was Ramen, and he presented three bowls on the table along with a hot water after preparing himself a bowl.

The hanyou had smelled the ramen and came out of the room half-dressed and sat down without asking and prepared his meal.

Miroku waited until his mouth was full of noodles and had blurted out Sango and him wanted to live together and were she was planning to move in at the end of the month.

For a moment the hanyou had remained speechless and Miroku used that opportunity to tell him Sango was happy to live with them.

"Oh! NO! No! I won't fucking live with you both!"

The hanyou pointed his chopsticks to his roommate as he went on.

"I've found you two rutting in the bathroom WITH the door opened, in living room, and even in the fucking kitchen, Miroku! I couldn't eat here for almost a month! A MONTH!"

His roommate listened quietly knowing everything that he said was true. They had been caught having sex in various parts of the house, but that actually gave Miroku another argument.

The older man raised his hands in surrender "I know. I know… and that was unpleasant for all of us, I assure you Inuyasha."

The hanyou only narrowed his eyes as his clawed hand pulled the top of another ramen cup.

"I think we can find a middle ground and make the best for the three of us…"

"Yeah! The middle ground is staying as we are…"

Miroku scratched his head. "Well… what about something else that can make you happy too?"

Inuyasha closed the lid and put his chopsticks on top and waited, still glaring at the other man.

"The thing that would make me happy is having a roommate" he stretched the word "that doesn't say stupid things so early in the morning"

"We can arrange that…" he muttered.

"What?"

"Oh! Nothing, nothing." The older man said.

The silver haired hanyou started to slurp his third cup of ramen ignoring everything else. Miroku knew he had to do something before his secret weapon arrived.

"I'm serious Inuyasha, Sango is going to move in. Is something we have been thinking for a long time and I think it can work. WE think it  _will_  work. That's why you need to listen to the alternatives."

Inuyasha growled. "There's no way I'm going to live under the same roof than you two perverts!"

"You made that point clear, thank you…"

"Good!"

Inuyasha's ears swiveled and pointed to the door a moment before someone knocked on the door. With a smile that was lost to Inuyasha, Miroku started to get to the door but before reaching it, the door opened and a woman with a bright smile walked in.

"Hello!" She said in chirping tone.

"Hi, beautiful." Answered Miroku before taking a box she was carrying and take it to his room.

Sango walked to the kitchen where Inuyasha was preparing his last ramen cup.

"Hello Inuyasha" She said taking the seat Miroku had occupied earlier.

Using his chopsticks to make point to her face "I'm not living with you two!" He declared.

She slapped the chopsticks to the side. "I know that!"

"Good!"

Miroku walked out of the room in time to see his roommate face change from smug to shocked as Sango said "It  _IS_  great! Thank you for agreeing to move out. I actually found your new apartment today"

It was the first time Sango watched Inuyasha discard his ramen to do something else, even if that something else involved opening and closing his mouth repeatedly without uttering a sound before growling.

"I'm not moving out!"

Miroku ran closer to his girlfriend and explained his current roommate had not agree to their plan and slowly moved her away from the growling hanyou.

He wanted to keep her safe and wait for Inuyasha to calm down, but after all, this was Sango. So she slapped his hands off her shoulders and came back to the kitchen.

"Why not?" She spat as she stood in front of him with her hands on the hips.

"Because I don't wanna?" He answered with a mocking tone.

"That means that you prefer to live HERE" she motioned the place with a hand "with us, being really uncomfortable. And don't try to deny it, I know you don't like to be around when I come to visit…"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes "Wasn't going to… you two are gross."

Sango leaned closer with a menacing glare. "We are gross! But even with that you don't what to move out!"

Inuyasha backed up a little but not because he was afraid of the woman in front of him. He did it to protect his ears from her high pitched voice, it was totally because of that reason only.

"I tell you Inuyasha! You are the most stubborn man I've ever met! We…" She reached back with her right hand and pulled Miroku closer. "We are trying to live together, and actually YOU have the best end of this deal! The place we've been trying to get for you is closer to campus and your job. The rent is cheaper! Your new roommate is really considerate, clean and actually cooks edible things, not only white rice!"

Miroku gave her an outraged look but she kept going.

"And the best thing is that you would not be worrying about me barging in…"

Sango pointed at the hanyou with her well-manicured finger.

"All this things only for you! But you are too stubborn to actually consider it an option and as the stupid proud man you are, the possibility of this change is not even in your head. You go directly to shouting 'no'! And then we end up getting yelled at by you!"

Without being noticed by Sango, Miroku had started to walk back, slowly getting out of both of the other two occupant's reach.

"Keh! I could do that, if your stupid boyfriend had told me any of that information!"

"What?"

Now the accusing eyes of both, his current roommate and his soon-to-be roommate, were fixated on him waiting for him to say something.

"I wanted to tell him… But he kept cutting me and telling me he was not going to let you move in and I couldn't go past it until you said it, and all this…" he motioned to the three of them "…started." He gave them a small smile that was not reciprocated. "But now that you have all the facts, Inuyasha. You can think about it."

The hanyou only growled and didn't say any other word before grabbing his backpack and walking to the door.

Miroku and Sango smiled. This was a better reaction than what they expected.

"What did you bring?" Asked the man nonchalantly…

"Something for our room." She turned to her boyfriend. "Don't think I forgot how you evaded telling him we wanted him to move out…"

He watched her walk to the soon-to-be  _their_  room.

-.-.-.-

Inuyasha growled again, and one more time before opening the door of his new apartment. He looked for the key trying not to drop the boxes in his hands. This boxes along with what he carried in the oversized yellow backpack that Sango lend him were the last belongings of his former apartment.

After the 'negotiation' that he would better call it harassment, he had caved in and agreed to move to another apartment. But not before making a settlement where Miroku would pay for Inuyasha's part of the rent for the first four months and an unlimited supply of cup ramen for six months.

He tried the last key of the few Sango had gave him a couple of hours before. Turned the key and pushed it open, unintendedly letting one of the boxes slide to the door. Slowly he lowered the boxes to avoid the crash on the floor.

The apartment distribution was close to the one he used to live in. To the left of the entrance was the kitchen, along with a little bar and stools. In front of him and extending to the right was the living room with a T.V. on the wall, a coffee table and a sofa big enough to sleep in, he liked that. On the right wall was a bookshelf. The doors to the two rooms where in the back wall. The bathroom door was at the far left, behind the kitchen and on the opposite end was the door to the laundry room.

The first impression of his new apartment was that it looked clean and it smelled… He sniffed the air again. It smelled clean, flowers and sweet bread. He followed his nose to the kitchen and there were a few cellophane bags of his favorite brand of red bean and melon bread. His mouth watered, they looked so fresh and delicious. He reached for a bag but stopped midair, it was better to wait for his roommate to give permission to eat it.

He really wanted to start with the right foot and eating other's food was not the best option to do it.

Inuyasha went back for his boxes and walked to his room, it was the room to the right, easy to identify by smell. Opened the door and left the boxes by the door. Everything was set and ready to be used, it was comfortable for him to just arrived and rest in his room but also a little unnerving knowing that his ex-roommate and his girlfriend had touched everything inside.

The hanyou shook his head to avoid going deeper into the subject and opened the closet that covered half of the wall on the right, the other half was the desk, the wall in front of the door had his oversized bean chair and on the left wall the twin bed with his sheet set all ready.

After placing his backpack on the desk chair, took out his headphones and lied down on his new bed. It was barely after noon and his new roommate, Kagome, arrived home at 8 p.m. according to Sango.

It was way too hot to lie down on his jeans and hoodie. It wasn't because he was nervous about meeting his roommate. Of course it was not about that, he just needed to slip out of the jeans and top to lie down.

He checked his door was locked and went back to the bed and placed his custom-made headphones on and turned on the music.

He laid on bed relaxing with the sweet smell of sweet bread, much different from the overwhelming smell of male perfume and the noise of the couple on the bedroom next to him. He let out a short laugh. The latter was the real reason why he got those headphones.

Inuyasha closed his eyes and breathed in deep again and without realizing he fell sleep.

-.-.-.-.-

This had been a long day for Kagome, she was really tired, had not slept normally for the last two days and the only thing she wanted was a lazy dinner, a long bath and go to bed… maybe some alcohol involved in-between of those steps.

Two nights ago was Sango's last night in the apartment and they had a girl's night, talking and drinking most of the night. Remembering the good moments of their life as roommates, and even as the last part of the party was kind of hazy and she was sure they fell sleep crying, it had been amazing.

After that night Sango moved out and Miroku and she had been moving things to their new apartment. According to her best friend the new roommate would get in touch over the weekend.

That meant that she had at least three more restless nights alone in the apartment, waking up with every noise.

Finally she was home. She had somehow managed to go home three hours before she normally did and she needed those three hours.

She opened the door and took he shoes off, feeling the cool floor on her feet and sighing. She walked to the living room and left her purse on the couch and on the coffee table the milk bread given to her at work.

The next thing was getting out of the work clothes. Opened her room and without stop walking she slipped of everything except her panties and put on the comfiest sleeping shirt she had, the one that Sango had numerous times expressed the need to throw away, but this was her very faded oversized pink shirt that once belonged to her late father. Meaning this shirt will never be thrown away.

She walked back to the kitchen and opened the fridge looking for cool water and enjoying the cold air and closing her eyes.

Lost to her was the image of the half asleep hanyou walking out of the room directly to the bread she left on the living room.

Guided only by his nose and his half opened eyes he reached for the bag and took a bite of the delicious bread on the table. He munched leisurely letting it melt in his mouth and groaning.

That groaning sound made Kagome turned to the living room with the water bottle still on her mouth. She froze for a second, absorbing the image in front of her.

Inside her house was a half-naked man, eating her food and for his looks he was part youkai.

The sound of the water bottle falling to the floor was lost as she gave the loudest scream her lungs were capable of .

The shrieking sound force the hanyou to go from half-asleep to defense mode, responding with a snarl at the same time he turned to the kitchen. It took him longer than normal to assert the situation.

A petite human woman was screaming at him from the kitchen with a frying pan in her hands. He wanted to laugh at the image but the ringing in his ears quickly evaporate the fun of the situation.

"Hey! Wench! Mind the ears!"

She stopped the shrieking, replacing it for an order delivered in a quivering voice "Go away!" She moved the frying pan as a baseball bat "Leave me alone! I'm going to call the police!"

Her scent reached his nose and his brows lowered, she was really scared.

She watched how the stranger in her living room sniffed the air twice before raising his hands.

"Calm down. There's nothing to be scared. Is just me…"

She pointed him with the frying pan, her hands were shivering from both the emotion and the exertion, she had chosen an iron pan to do this and her arms would not resist much more in this position.

"I don't care who you are! Just go away!"

"Just breathe, Kagome…"

The woman let out a yelp. "How do you know my name?"

The hanyou sighed tired. "Hey! You make it sound like I'm some kind of crazy stalker!"

Her arms finally gave out and the pan was now resting in front of her thighs.

His white ears flicked when her whispered words where uttered. "Aren't you?"

"Of course I'm not!" he used a clawed finger to point at her "Sango didn't tell me my new roommate was this kind of crazy!" His hands rested on his hips as he continued "I arrived a little earlier and fell sleep. No need to scream like this after all it wa-"

His words died when her face changed from scared to furious and banged the pan against the counter. Unconsciously he took a step back when she circled the kitchen peninsula and stood in front of him.

"Sango?"

The man nodded.

Kagome took a deep breath and raised her hand a little higher than her head "This tall, petite, brown hair, bad temper and with a stupid-"

"Stupid pervert boyfriend, Miroku. Yeah, that Sango." He finished for her.

Inuyasha watched quietly as she let out another shriek, this one of anger, and walked to her room without another word. His golden eyes followed her as she looked for something on her room, picking up clothes, reaching down not paying attention to the hem of her shirt, letting him know she was only wearing her panties and the shirt. He turned away blushing and waited for her to come back.

His ears, which were still turned to her even as the rest of his face wasn't heard her groaned again and walked angrily back to him. She passed him and took her purse and took her phone out.

She dialed Sango's number and put the phone to her ear. As she waited for her best friend and treacherous ex-roommate to answer, her eyes came back to the man in her apartment, the one who was studying her fridge with a remarkable focus. Now that his profile was turned to her, and those intense golden eyes where not on her, Kagome used the opportunity to see him. He was taller than her for at least ten inches and he was built, he had attractive masculine features, nothing weird from a youkai. But the doggy ears on the top of his head told her that he was not completely youkai.

His voice took her away from her musings "I think she is not answering… I'm going to try the bouzu"

Up to that moment she had not registered that the call had disconnected, Kagome didn't even know if the call was rejected or even if she recorded a message.

Trying to keep her focus on the call she looked at him as the number was dialed and he waited for Miroku to answer without moving it to his ears. And as both of them expected he didn't answer the call either.

Not wasting anymore time Kagome took her purse and walked to the door, she put on the first pair of shoes she saw. Also now registering the pair of tennis that where neatly placed in the shoe racket.

Her hand was on the door knob when he cleared his throat and she turned to him

"Are… are you goin' out?" He said still not looking directly at her.

"Yeah. I'm going to their home, why?"

Her blue eyes followed his clawed hand as it went up and scratched nervously behind one of his ears. "Dressed like that?".

The woman let out another high pitched yelp as she took off the shoes, dropped the purse on the entrance and raced to her room slamming the door.

She frantically searched for something to wear, deciding on a sports bra, an oversized shirt with no transparency or holes in it and her longest sleeping shorts, the ones that reached mid-thigh.

"Why you didn't say something earlier? You said that you were not a pervert!"

He scoffed on her direction. "Because: One. You started screaming when you saw me; Two. I wanted to calm you not freak you out more; Three. I was waiting for you to slow down to tell you. "

She laughed softly at his explanation.

"Well, I should tell you that you are still on boxers…"

"Wha-?"

She laughed again as the sound of steps and his door closing reached her.

The first one to go back to the living room was Kagome. She saw him emerge wearing black shorts and a red tank top.

Before any of them could say something, both of their cellphones rang.

She reached for hers and it was a message from Sango. Kagome made a sound close to a growl after she finished reading and decided to read it to him.

The message said:

" _Hi kagome. Congratulations on meeting your new Roommate, Inuyasha, he is a good friend of Miroku, don't worry, they don't share the same lecherous inclinations. He agreed to live there according to the same rules you and me had, you will be okay. He is a good person. Sorry for not telling you before. Good luck! P. S. We are not at home, so don't try to look for us. XOXO. I'm sorry for this. "_

Inuyasha made another growl. Kagome nodded appreciative, that was a real growl.

Without asking he read out loud his:

" _Wazzup my friend. I take your call as you met your new roomie, remember her name is Kagome, she gets upset if you call her anything else, doesn't matter how flattering it is. Congratulations! She's a looker right? Not like my beautiful Sango, but she is close… really close. No need to thank me, I did this for you. You deserve it… Just remember, when the time comes... be safe and enjoy ;) BTW… we forgot to tell her you were moving in. Ooppsiies~~ Be confident you are a good catch, show her the best of you, show some skin. ALSO! We are not home at the moment, for obvious reasons. Remember I love you and you are the second love of my life XOXO"_

Inuyasha growled again. And Kagome only looked at him, still shocked by the nonchalant way they just declared she was not informed and they expected everything to play out smoothly.

"I'm going to kill the stupid bouzu." He looked at her "You didn't have to go through by all this drama if they had the balls to say things right. They didn't tell you I was moving today"

Kagome let out a dry laugh "They didn't tell me you were moving in. Period"

"Stupid coward couple".

She nodded in agreement and sighed

Her cellphone rang. And she answered without looking who was calling.

Inuyasha looked at her expecting it to be one of their stupid friends. She nodded as she paced around the coffee table saying she was sorry and promising to keep their voices down. He deducted it was the manager or the landlord.

"Yes, we are sorry. Yes we will keep it down. Yes I'm aware the domestic disputes are to remain private. I'm sorry" She gave him a side glance "We are sorry, it won't happen again."

She disconnected the call and sighed again.

She looked up when a pair of masculine feet intruded on her vision field. He was standing in front of her. "I guess we should try to finish this in the normal-est way possible"

As soon of her eyes made contact with his, the man bowed to her. "My name is Inuyasha, your new roommate. I hope we get along fine. Thank you for taking care of me."

She imitated him "I'm Kagome, your new roommate. I'm sure we are going to get along just fine. Thank you for taking care of me."

They stared at each other in awkward silence for a few moments.

"Uh… ah… whan to have something for dinner?" Asked Kagome hesitantly.

He scratched just behind of his right ear. "Dunno, I'm not really hungry… what are you planning to cook?"

She laughed good heartily for the first time since she had seen him today and he found himself smiling at her back as she walked to the kitchen and took a pair of cup ramen from the cupboard and showed them to him.

"I don't feel like cooking tonight…" she gave him a side-looped smile "Long, eventful day y'know?"

He nodded and sat on the stool closest to him.

"Yeah, long day too"

She turned to put water to boil and he smiled at her back again. Maybe this change of plans was not so bad after all.


	2. With the right foot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome wants to show him she is not a crazy woman at the same time he is trying to make her think he is a good roommate. What can go wrong?

ROOMMATES

2\. With the Right Foot.

“OK Kagome, today is going to be about showing your new roommate you are a well-adjusted grown adult… And make sure he is too!”  Kagome whispered to herself before going out of the bed.

 

She started her morning routine, the first thing was a shower. She took her phone and checked her e-mails and messages as she walked to the bathroom. She was so engrossed reading Yuka’s message about the change of plans for their group project that she paid no attention to the subtle temperature change as she walked closer. She hated changes with short notice.

 

Kagome pushed the door open at the same time her eyes looked away from her phone, her breathe halted at the sight of her very naked hanyou roommate. He had a towel hanging low on his hips and was drying his hair, with another towel at the top of his head. She could only see his profile, but from what she could see he had an expression full of bliss, with his eyes closed and a soft smile on his lips. Later she would wonder if the sound coming out of him as he softly scratched his ears could be called a purr.

 

The young woman didn’t know how long she stood there as he played with his ears but she must have made some kind of noise because suddenly his eyes opened and focused on her with a half surprised-half angry kind of expression.

 

After a few moments of just staring at each other he was the first to talk “You need something or you just gonna stare?” he said with a flat voice, his tough act betrayed by the growing blush in his cheeks.

 

Kagome blinked a couple of times before being able to say something. “Um, I forgot, you were here.” Was her explanation. As soon as the words left her lips she knew how stupid it sounded and mentally slapped herself.

 

She cleared her throat and avoided her roommate's body as she tried to explain herself better. “I’m not used to having somebody else awake at this hour.”

 

Inuyasha could see how uncomfortable she was, and he knew there were two options, making it easy for her or fun for himself.

 

As much as he loved watching Kagome fret and blush, the most decent thing he could do was help her right now.

 

“Yeah, me neither”. He let out in the most relaxed voice he was capable of making.  His golden eyes focused on her blues and waited for her to finally look at him. Kagome looked at the wall, then at the mirror, then just beside his head - but not at him- and finally she mastered the strength to look at his face.

 

“I already finished, you can use it.”

 

She nodded as he walked passed her without looking at her. Before exiting the bathroom he made a point of turning the lock on the door and closing it.

 

As Inuyasha walked to his room he could hear the muffled mortified screams of his roommate. He smiled, at least he wasn’t the only one that, according to Kagome’s words, wanted to “disappear into thin air from embarrassment”.

 

The rest of the morning passed without incident, besides Kagome apologising once and again. During breakfast they exchanged phone numbers and agreed to talk about the ground rules that afternoon after school and work.

 

They walked in an amicable silence to school, noticing their buildings were fairly close, but neither of them commented on it.

 

“See ya, Kagome” He said with a somewhat awkward smile as he sprinted to class.

 

Kagome turned to say good bye, but he was already gone.

 

Kagome's day was longer than expected. She had classes until midday, and then her shift in the afternoon, but after the bathroom incident -just thinking about it made her blush again- she had failed to tell Yuka that she would be busy and she had to run to her team meeting.

 

As she rushed there Kagome thought about texting Inuyasha to tell him she would be late. She took her phone out and tried to text.

 

“I will be late. Forgot I had a group assignment” She read it and made a face, thinking about how it would make her look even more incompetent than he must already think she is. She shook her head and typed again. “I have a team meeting, will take longer than expected. Sorry...” Kagome stared at the screen for a long moment, almost chickening out. “Why are you so nervous? Ugh!” She pushed send and let out a sigh.

 

The reply came almost immediately. It read ‘K. See ya @ home. GLuck”.  Kagome found herself smiling at her phone.  She hadn’t expected a reply, much less one beyond a ‘K’. Now she was fairly sure Inuyasha was a decent chicken, she laughed at her her own joke _‘_ _chickens are decent people_ _’_ she giggled softly again.

Almost an hour later, when her teammates were finally deciding on the concept of their project, she received another message.

 

It said ‘I’m hungry... r u coming home soon?”

 

Kagome chuckled. She had told him she was going to make dinner, considering he didn’t know where things were and all the food in the fridge had been bought with a purpose in mind, a purpose she had yet to tell him.

 

‘No, still busy. maybe 2+ hours?’

 

She hadn’t yet returned the phone to her pocket when it rang again.

 

‘Ok... I’ll be starving..I trusted you, u kno?... and now I’m starving”’

 

Kagome snorted a laugh, making her classmates look at her. “sorry” she said with a hand up as she stood up and walked away a little.

 

‘If you need help, call 119. they r faster”

 

Inuyasha read the message and chuckled. After sending the last message he was nervous, maybe Kagome didn’t like to text this way. Maybe she was really busy and didn’t like to text back. Maybe it was too soon to do  the ‘funny things’.

 

He had braced himself for something along the lines of a: ‘see you at home’, ‘ttyl’, or a dry ‘k’. But this was good, his new roommate had a sense of humor.

 

He typed his next message carefully, his tongue playing with one of his fangs.

 

‘If you don’t hurry home you’ll find a famished man unconscious on the couch.’

 

The hanyou smirked at his phone. He was totally nailing this. After a few minutes his phone rang and he downright laughed at it.

 

‘If you are going to pass out DO IT IN YOUR ROOM! Have some dignity! btw there is bread in the fridge.”

 

He was already typing something back when a new message arrived. “gotta do my part of the project. I’ll be home soon, try not to die until I get there’

 

‘I will try... can’t promise anything tho. Gluck. Bring me food”

 

A few moments and her last message of the night was received “I won’t. Bye”

 

Inuyasha threw the phone on the coffee table and walked to the fridge. If the wench was not going to bring him food. He would eat that bread!

 

Kagome walked home slowly, she felt drained. It had taken them three hours to decide what they will be doing, and how they will be doing it.  Her precious free afternoon time was lost in a meeting deciding something that could have easily been arranged by text.

 

The girl groaned as she climbed the stairs, she was almost home when she remembered the text conversation she had with her roommate. Inuyasha being playful was not something she expected. It was a nice surprise, a really nice surprise indeed.

 

She smiled to herself thinking about what he could be doing. Sleeping on the couch or in his room was most likely how she would find him.

 

Kagome entered her apartment and found a scene she wasn’t prepared to face. Her roommate cooking something on the stove, cursing at what he was cooking, wearing nothing but low riding basketball shorts and with his silver hair up in a high ponytail.

 

Maybe for other people it wasn't something something out of the ordinary to find their roommates cooking, but for Kagome it was something that had happened five times tops in the two years she had been living away from home. And being completely honest with herself, the most surprising thing was having a half naked man cooking on her kitchen. A gorgeous half naked man cooking in her kitchen. It was something a girl could get used to. No doubt.

 

Kagome slapped herself mentally. It was not cool to be thinking about that. Inuyasha was her roommate and she didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable in his own home. So that meant she had to shush those lusty thoughts out of her head.

 

One of his white ears turned to the door before his smirking face greeted her with a “Yo! Dinner's almost ready” he pointed with a wooden spoon to her room and shook it a couple of times. “Go and do whatever you women do after getting home”

 

Kagome nodded still absorbing that image. She would never admit it out loud, but if his back side was gorgeous, his front with those piercing amber eyes and his fanged smile was... SHE WAS NOT GOING THERE! NOPE! IT WAS A FORBIDDEN TERRITORY!

 

She rushed to her room and closed the door without giving him another look. She changed into something comfortable, but not as comfortable as her favorite worn out shirt.

 

From the kitchen his voice kept coming “Shit! Stop! Fucking shit! stop! agh! ” Kagome giggled as Inuyasha kept yelling at whatever he was cooking.

 

She crossed her fingers. “Please let him be a better cook than Sango” she whispered to herself at the same time her legs slipped into comfortable shorts.

 

“Hey! have some faith! At least I’m not as bad as the pervert!” came the reply she was not expecting. ‘ _He heard that?_ ’ she thought before remembering ‘ _he_ _’_ _s a hanyou, duh_ ’   

 

Kagome opened the door with bored face “that doesn’t make a compelling argument”

 

Inuyasha ignored her and placed the food on the kitchen counter. Kagome walked closer and studied his cooking, it looked like plain, fried steak strips, they looked tender and cooked just right. She smiled to his back, at least it looked better than Sango’s cooking.

 

“Sit down and eat” He said without stopping moving.

 

“Bossy, huh?” Kagome muttered as she obeyed.

 

This time he did stop to give her a toothy grin “Always”

 

Kagome clicked her tongue and shook her head as he placed the teapot, and four cup ramen in front of her.

 

“Dinner is ready” the hanyou declared as he took a seat in front of her. “Enjoy it because it isn't something the world usually sees” Before Kagome could make a caustic observation he narrowed his golden eyes and continued “A dinner made by me for someone else, THAT is what I meant.”

 

Kagome opened her eyes in pretence innocence “Oh! Not even for Miroku you made a banquet like this?”

 

Inuyasha snorted as he put the chopsticks on the table. “Especially not for the pervert!” He poured water in two ramen cups.

 

The black haired woman in front of him had her face propped on her hand as she watched his movements. It was funny what her eyes were doing to him. Inuyasha felt both proud and nervous of what he was doing.

 

He cleared his throat, “Yeah I had to keep my ramen from him because the fucker just ate it without letting me know and suddenly my stash would be shrinking.” The hanyou slowly shook his head. “Some people don't deserve ramen”

 

Kagome reached for one cup of instant noodles. “You know we can’t have ramen for dinner everyday, right?”

 

Inuyasha didn’t answer but one of his clawed hands darted to stop the cup she was pulling. Kagome’s blue eyes made contact with his golden -and completely serious- stare. “Don’t you dare come between ramen and me, wench.”

 

Kagome let out an uncomfortable laugh as he removed his hand from the cup. She wasn’t sure if he was serious, she hoped not, but... she really hoped not.

 

They remained silent for a few moments, as soon as Inuyasha finished with his first cup and three quarters of the meat he cooked his voice reached her.

 

“So, whadda ya want to talk about?”

 

The girl cleared her throat. “We need to talk about rules and organize the house work”

 

“What kind of rules ya’re talking about?”

 

The question sounded threatening in her ears but looking at his face she noticed his sincere interest, with his head tilted to the side and his ears perked and pointing at her.

 

“Um... rules. Rules like who uses the bathroom first, like what are our pet peeves” she motioned the space between them with her hand “so we can avoid bothering one another. Dress code. Things like that”

 

“Dress code?” Inuyasha placed an elbow on the counter and rested his cheek on his hand “Are you gonna tell me that I should always wear shirt and cannot be in boxers in tha house?”

 

Kagome could feel a growing heat in her cheeks as he spoke.

 

“Well...” she croaked as she tried to focus her eyes in a point just beside Inuyasha’s head. “Maybe... I dunno, depends of what you think or what you dislike”

 

Inuyasha was having fun teasing her. Honestly he did like to wear only boxers at home, but it was too soon to be doing that.  But as his roommate started to blush as she mentioned ‘dress code’ he couldn’t resist to mess with her.

 

“Wench, I like to be comfortable at home.” At that she nodded. “It’s the place I want to be able to wear the shit I want. And honestly I don’t give a fuck about what you wear. That's your problem. But I won’t be wearing clothes I don’t wanna.” He raise a clawed hand in a conciliatory gesture before speaking “I won’t be naked outside of my room but I can’t promise anything else.”

 

Kagome’s blush had invaded from the neck up. “Well... I think you’re right”

 

She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again and looked directly into his eyes all signs of her embarrassment were gone “You have the right to wear what you feel comfortable in, true. But if what you wear makes me uncomfortable I will tell you, and I expect you to take that into consideration, just like I will if you say something.”

 

Inuyasha nodded. “Cool!, what’s next in line?”

“Cleaning”

 

Inuyasha smiled “That is easy, we find a person to come and clean once a month! Next!”

 

The young woman made a face that Inuyasha understood as a ‘What the fuck?’ and before she said anything, he barked a “What?”

 

“Once a month? A person?” She asked with a velvety voice. A voice that he would soon recognize as a huge glowing red flag. A voice that announced the arrival of something he would not like. The velvety calm before the proverbial storm. But as an ignorant of Kagome’s ways he smiled and nodded, proud of his idea.

 

 “Wait, wait.”  That voice didn’t sound good on his ears anymore, it sounded strangely like Sango’s just before throwing things at the pervert. “You think the house is cleaned only once a month?” He nodded again as he tried to keep his ears from drooping. “So you like to live in filth for half a month?” Kagome continued.

 

Inuyasha blinked, he knew it was a trick question. And this time his ears did drop on his scalp.

 

Kagome opened her arms signaling the house around them “THIS house is cleaned once a week, at least.” One of her hands moved really close to his face pointing between his eyes “I will not pay someone to do something we can do on our own.”

 

She looked down to her empty bowl and shuddered “Just thinking about some stranger touching all my stuff gives me the creeps”

 

Inuyasha remained silent as she finished venting. He may not understand her problem with having someone doing something she didn’t want to do, but he did understand one thing, the option was off the table.

 

Suddenly her blue eyes were focusing on him with an intensity that made him nervous. “Inuyasha...”  His ears perked at the tone, it lacked the bite of moments before. “Does that mean you don’t know how to clean and keep your home tidy?”   

 

The hanyou crossed his arms and gave her the best deadpan expression he could “Just because I don’t like to do something doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do it!”

 

Kagome nodded as Inuyasha bit back a triumphant smile. He had convinced her without telling her a lie! Living with Miroku for almost three years had thought him one or two things.

 

He was still congratulating himself when she declared  “We need a list” Before running to her room and returning with a notepad and a pen. She listed everything she considered needed to be done around the house as he finished his other two cups of ramen.

 

“Ok... what do you think about choosing one thing each and taking turns?”

 

Inuyasha nodded with his mouth still full of meat.

 

After Kagome finished her list, and Inuyasha finished insisting she was making up things to do and how she exaggerated on how often thing must to be done, they finally agreed on the chore assignment and put the list on the fridge.

 

According to the list, Kagome was in charge of cooking and Inuyasha of washing the dishes; but since this time he had made the food, she did the dishes and he stayed seated and ate the last piece of melon bread from the fridge as he watched her work. She used the opportunity to tell him where other things were. Bowls, pans, pots and everything else in the kitchen.

 

Inuyasha had chosen to clean the floors and the bathroom along with other small chores like taking out the trash.  It became obvious to Kagome that Inuyasha had never taken care of a house before, and she suspected that the person he and Miroku payed for cleaning did much more than that. For the first time she found herself wondering what kind of childhood he had lived through.

 

The young woman showed him where she kept the cleaning products, and as she expected, the first thing he said as she opened the door of the laundry room was: “Since when is all this shit needed to clean?”

 

Kagome gave her a side looped smile. “Since people like to live without infections and pests”

 

Inuyasha shook his head in disbelief. “Nah, You are one of those people that can't touch dirty stuff and freak out everytime there's a spider!”

The woman, who was still holding the door open, frowned at him in dulled indignation and he  found it impossible to stop himself. “Does that mean we have to add to that freakishly long-ass list: killing spiders and buying buckets of purell?” A smile was tugging on the corner of his lips.  “Or-or! Am I supposed to disinfect my hands before touching a doorknob?”  

 

Kagome closed the door and pushed her roommate’s huge body back to the living room. He was still talking, making jokes that were less and less funny. “or-or...”

 

“Shut up, Inuyasha...” She ordered with a bored face as she pushed him to sit on the couch.

 

Without losing his fang-showing grin he nodded, agreeing incredibly easily. He had secretly decided how to keep messing with her, it would be by text. Tomorrow. During class!

 

Hiding his smug grin he said one more thing. “You are one of those people that gets angry when a kid touches them with dirty hands, one of those bitches that yells at them and hits them for messing up your pretty clothes, right? One of those bitches ready to push a filthy brat to the side.”  Kagome’s face went from bored to fuming in one second.

 

He knew for a fact that was a lie, as the smell of numerous children clung to her. He was really curious about what she did when she wasn’t home, she had many smells on her, children, adults, and bread. He could not figure out what her job was, but asking her what she did when he wasn’t around was too needy, too out of character for him.

 

Inuyasha had secretly hope for her to ask or mention something about what she did today, but no, she never mentioned a thing. Now he had to take the offensive and, by the looks of it. He had fucked up the nice moment -or whatever- they were having by asking it in the wrong way.

 

The remote was going up and down in front of his face in a menacing manner as she berated him. “You know nothing about me! Oh, and I get it! You’ve never cleaned a house so you most likely will hate doing it. But accusing me of doing THAT to a child? Who do you...”

 

Inuyasha grabbed the dancing remote and took it from her. The speed he used to do it made Kagome forget her train of thought. She hadn’t seen him move. As she looked up to his face, she was reminded for the first time today about the real implications of having a hanyou for a roommate. His speed and strength were in no way  measurable in the same standards as hers.

 

“Ok, ok... I get it, you don’t hit children. Good for you” He told her as he focused his attention on the wall beside them.

 

 _‘_ _Was that some kind of apology?_ _’_ Kagome wondered. _‘_ _Did he really think that would make it?_ _’_  “Inuyasha...” The warning was delivered in that velvety tone that made him nervous.

 

“Ya, ya! I’ll keep my mouth shut, alright?”  the woman was still frowning without saying anything else nor taking her huge accusing eyes off of him. “Let’s watch T.V, ok?” He pulled her to sit on the couch beside him and turned it on.

 

Inuyasha purposefully ignored the hole her eyes were drilling on the side of his head as he turned to the screen and surfed the channels to find something to watch. After a minute or so she finally payed attention to the device and he finally relaxed.

 

They wordlessly agreed to watch a comedy show and soon she was laughing along with the jokes. She was completely immerse in the ridiculous situations and lightly slapping his leg with each laugh when his phone went off.

 

Kagome turned to him as his phone was taken out of his shorts, his face lit up when he read the name on the screen.

 

“‘zup!” was his greeting as he kept the phone close to his face, almost at his eye level. The person on the other side of the line must had said something funny because he let out a small chuckle. “Yes, yes..” His voice became surprisingly soft. “Nice to hear from you, how are ya?”  

 

The conversation went on as he did more listening than talking. At one point one of his white ears stopped pointing at the phone and turned to her. She really liked those ears of his. Shortly after his eyes focused on her as if he had forgotten she was still there. She blushed and turned her head away, she had been eavesdropping on the conversation for quite a while.

 

“Kik-Kikyou wait a moment” he said to the phone before lowering to his lap and turning his head to Kagome.

 

“Goin’ to bed. G'nite wench!” He announced as he walked to his room and gave her a military salute before opening the door.

 

“Good night Inuyasha” She whispered to his back, not sure he was listening.

 

“I’m back...I was saying goodnight to my roomie. Nah, it’s ok, you were saying something about...” That was the last thing Kagome heard before he closed the door.

 

She frowned at his door before staring at the T.V. again. _‘_ _Who was this Kikyou? was she his girlfriend?_ ’ she thought as she turned the device off and walked to her room.

 

Just before falling asleep a curious thought came to her mind _‘_ _What would his girlfriend think about Inuyasha living with another woman? ..._ _And why does he call me wench?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go! The second chapter!  
> Thank you for reading this story, it means a lot to me. And thank you so much to the people who took the time to write a review. It is great to have some feedback on what is happening here.  
> I want to tell you that I KNOW Inuyasha is OOC here, but he is trying to make things work and showing the best part of him. Wait for him to feel comfortable around her to show himself as he truly is *evil laugh*  
> And a supper big thank you to stoatsandweasels for her precious time beta-ing this. It really needed some changes.  
> Now I will go and work on the rest of my stories. Thank you again.  
> Love,  
> Nanna


	3. Good Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inuyasha tries to starts doing his parts of the apartment's chores and it doesn't go according to his plans.

**Disclaimer** : I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. And I do not intent to gain any kind of retribution for this work of fanfiction.

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Chapter 3. Good Intentions**

Inuyasha stared at the shelf in front of him. Glaring at it would be more accurate. He tried to take a long breath as he wondered why he had to do all this shitty work.

Kagome had, very eloquently, told him why they needed to clean and even if he understood the necessity of it... it was something he really didn't want to do. Still, he had promised Kagome he would do it, and since today he didn't have afternoon classes and he didn't work, it was the perfect opportunity to do it without his roommate around.

He looked at the note with the instructions in his hands. No doubt Kagome paid attention to detail because the list of steps had more than forty items if he counted the 'Don't you even think about...' items. She had even labeled the bottles with 'floor', 'bathtub', 'sink' and even put numbers on the bottles that were part of a process.

The hanyou was half amused by how much she was trying to make this easier for him, the other half kept telling him that the woman thought he was incapable, too stupid, to do something that other people did regularly. In a swift motion, he ripped the post-its on the bottles. "I can do this shit on my own!" he shouted as he threw the note into the trash.

Leaving the note in the laundry room, Inuyasha took the things that he knew were for the bathroom and brought them there.

She had told him to clean the sink, the toilet, bathtub, and the walls around it. She had also told him to pour the liquids with care, put on some rubber gloves and scrub before rinsing. Inuyasha had a great idea! Instead of wasting too much time dealing with one thing at a time he would do everything at the same time and have the afternoon free to do nothing at all.

With a fang showing smile, the hanyou opened the cleaner that Kagome had told him was for the sink and poured a generous amount in it. Without stopping he put the bottle down and took the disinfectant for the toilet. He wasn't sure if it was  _only_ for the inside or not so he decided that more was better and he poured another large amount to the inside and outside of the toilet. His nose started itching so he hurried. Then he opened the water and used the mobile head and poured water on the bath walls and bathtub. As soon as everything was wet he took the last bottle and sprayed the bubbly liquid on the walls and the tub.

He scratched his nose as he saw the blue stained bathroom. He was nailing it. He remembered Kagome said that the toilet may need some time with the cleaning before scrubbing to make it easier. So he closed the door and walked back to do the floor, patting himself in the back for being a genius at cleaning his home.

The vacuuming was a piece of cake. The mopping on the other hand... it easily was the most difficult of his tasks for the day. She used these flimsy, too-sweet-smelling tissues that wrapped around the mop with its stupid clicky clips. The tissues were too thin, he kept trying to secure them to the mop, ripping them every time he tried, after the third time-ish he got it... five minutes later the floor was sparkling clean and he was putting the tissues in the garbage. And the only thing left was the scrubby-rinsy business and he was done!

The mix of the sweet floor smell and the acrid one coming from the bathroom made him sneeze as he got the brushes and scrubs from the laundry room, sneezing a couple of times. But nothing had ever prepared him for what he found when he opened the door.

It happened all so fast that his head couldn't keep up with his body. As soon as he opened the door his eyes got watery and his throat started to burn as soon as he breathed in along with the unstoppable cough that came along with it.

"Wha-" he was interrupted by a wheezing cough "the-" coughing again, "fuck." He started to cough nonstop, only being able to draw a breath in after a couple of coughs, just to start the cycle again.

The dizziness started at the same time his arm shot for the showerhead and tried to start the water. He cursed when his hands couldn't find the knobs. He was out of breath from the coughing. He couldn't see anything with his eyes watering from the fumes and he was losing his balance. The last thing he thought before everything went black was that she was going to find him in his boxers again.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kagome walked to her apartment as fast as she could. Her classes had been 'meh' because they were mostly reviews of topics from classes from the last semester. Work ended hours before because a school canceled and her boss let her go home early.

It was a great thing because she was really nervous about Inuyasha doing the cleaning alone. She didn't doubt the man was going to try his best and that was exactly what worried her the most.

She had seen him try his best when they were doing the laundry. Trying to wash one of his shirts by hand... how it ended up in one piece baffled her. Inuyasha had literally pounded it, then rubbed it against the sink violently and after the rinsing he had shook it so fast that it was still surprising it had not ripped into pieces. After he had finished with that shirt, Kagome took her clothes and told him she was going to do it, that he didn't have to worry about it.

Of course, by the time she was done with it, Inuyasha had been complaining about how freaking slow she was with it and how probably the clothes weren't even clean because she was too afraid of doing something to them.

The key hit the lock at the same time she felt something was wrong, something smelled pungent. She opened the door and her eyes got watery. She looked around and there were no signs of her roommate.

She opened the door and walked towards his room. "Inuyasha?"

Kagome stopped cold when she saw a silver blob on the floor of their bathroom. "Inuyasha!"

She ran to the man, calling his name and getting no reaction from him. Kneeling beside him, she moved his bangs to the side and saw his face was strangely tense for someone that seemed completely out.

The next thing she did was to start the water to wash the chemicals away as she thought about how she was going to move the huge-half naked- man from the bathroom floor.

The only thing she was able to come up with was just pull his arms and drag him to the living room. Soon she discovered that it was so much easier said than done. Even his arms were heavier than she expected.

Taking his wrists in her hands she pulled with all the strength she could. Smiling when his body started moving.

"Come on big boy!" she said between her teeth, feeling the droplets of sweat form. "Let's get you to the living room!"

His body was finally out of the bathroom, but now she had a new problem. Besides the fact that it seemed she would take a whole day to get him there, with each time she pulled him his hair kept getting stuck beneath his body and was pulling his head back.

In the most careful way she could, Kagome pushed him to the side and twisted his hair to throw it over his chest. Pushing away the inappropriate thoughts of how it was surprisingly soft and thick.

"Get your head together, Kagome! Let's get dogboy away from his mess."

After another five minutes that felt like two hours for her now sore back, Kagome managed to drag him to the living room. Leaving him right between the couch and the coffee table.

Trying to move him to the couch was stupid, so she pushed it back to give him more space. She left him there with the open window and went to check the bathroom.

After changing her clothes, she started to wash the bathroom finding it really easy to clean as the different liquids had stayed way longer than she usually waited. She thanked whoever had designed the drain in the middle of the room. After the bubbles and the blue liquids were gone, and the smell didn't make her eyes water anymore, Kagome took a super-fast shower to wash off any residue on her skin.

Kagome went to check on her roommate. That by all accounts still was out like a light. She took the leftover bread her boss had given her today and she walked to the man again.

Sitting on the couch to watch T.V. with him sprawled on the floor didn't feel right. Neither did leaving him alone to study in her room. Sighing, Kagome followed her instinct and sat beside him, moving close enough to rest his head on her lap.

Kagome reached for the remote and surfed through the channels. She remembered how they had done something like that few days ago-with Inuyasha awake that time-until he had gotten a call and went to his room to talk. She remembered she had not asked whether he had a girlfriend, and he had not volunteered that information.

The remote laid forgotten beside her as the sleeping man in front of her drew her undivided attention.

As she thought about how she knew virtually nothing about him that had not been told to her by Miroku, her hands started to brush his long silver hair. Enjoying the way it slid silkily through her fingers. Now that he was not scoffing or smirking cynically the man looked so young and innocent. Without his golden eyes trained on her he lost most of the intensity and contained aggression. The way that both his eyes and lips tilted upward at the corners made him look almost like he was holding back a smile

Her eyes traveled down his body, appreciating the tone of his skin. It was several tones darker than her, but she had never seen someone whose skin had a natural golden undertone. It was difficult to express. Not really yellow but almost shimmering golden.

"Stop your lousy romantic novel, Kagome... What's next? Something stupid like galloping abs?" she muttered softly at the same time she took his hands in hers.

Not because she was doing something inappropriate to his body. It was just that she had admired his hands since he had moved in, she convinced herself. They felt rougher than hers and were way bigger, way way, bigger and angular, and adding those talons of his... Kagome hesitated before softly pressing a finger against it. They felt dull, not capable of cutting through things as she had seen him do easily.

Kagome left his hand over his belly and told herself that she needed to stop that. He was most likely feeling ill and she was being all touchy-touchy with an unconscious man. She kept telling that to herself, then her blue eyes found his ears.

It was weird seeing them not moving around. Even when she had found them sleeping on the couch, they were still flicking from time to time.

"It really got you good, dogboy." Her voice was empathetic as her hands started to stroke the back of one ear. "So soft," she couldn't stop from saying.

She took her time exploring them, watching them flick cutely when she got too close to the inside of them.

"I really love these, you know?"

"I can feel that..."

Kagome almost jumped when she heard his gravelly voice whisper.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Inuyasha had woken up with a throbbing headache. He didn't understand what was happening to him and his senses weren't as sharp as they usually were.

He was sure of two things. He was not on his bed and someone was touching him.

His first impulse was to jump away from wherever he was, but the queasy feeling in his belly told him that moving fast was not an option. He sniffed discreetly, trying to recollect more information.

The scent he found calmed him instantly. Kagome. The woman was touching his ears and for some unknown reason she had his head on her lap.

Inuyasha had never liked when people touched that part of him. It was never pleasant, not even when  _she_ touched him. But this woman was not touching him, she was massaging his ears. In weird circular motions that the longer she kept doing it the harder it was for him not to nuzzle her, and that would be extremely embarrassing.

Then he heard her say that she liked them and couldn't stop himself from commenting about it. The hanyou must have thought about how she would react to his words, not only in the surprised gasp and squeal she made, but the rest of her body.

Maybe his fangs wouldn't have scraped the inside of his mouth if he had thought about the jump she would make after being startled. And those short, blunt but undeniably hard nails that were trailing the end of one of his ears and with her surprise she had pinched hard

"Hey, my ear!" he yelped at the same time he opened his eyes and looked at her.

She was red as a tomato, and she became more flustered as she seemed to understand what he said.

"I hurt you? I'm sorry!" She looked at the ears she had been stroking and caressed it again. "I'm really sorry? Does it hurt? Of course it does!" her hands stopped and she gasped again. "I'm touching you again..."

Inuyasha made a dismissing noise in his throat and closed his eyes and flicked the pained ear. "S'not a bad feeling. Helps with the headache..." he mumbled.

"You have a headache?" she asked in a soft voice and his answer was another throaty noise.

"I guess that is to be expected because you breathed those fumes...for don't know how long"

Inuyasha remained motionless when he felt her hands return to his ear, rubbing in those small circles.

"Those fucking things seriously stink!" he opened one eye to give her an accusing glare. "You didn't say anything about fumes!"

Kagome scoffed but didn't stop her fingers. "I did tell you!"

"Ya didn't!" he argued closing his eyes with his brows low.

"I did! I wrote it in the list I left you!"

The hanyou scoffed again. "Of course you did! Everything was in that book you left me... you wanted me to read it all?"

"It wasn't that long, you're exaggerating!"

Without answering Inuyasha huffed and reached for his back pocket. Dramatically unfolded the three pages with writing on both sides.

"Exaggerating my ass! Look at this thing!" he complained.

"Come on!" she slapped his shoulder. "Even after reading that  _book-"_ she imitated his tone "-you did THAT."

"You think I read that shit?"

When Kagome's strokes stopped, Inuyasha knew he had gone too far and he started to blurt, "It was too much! I thought it was cool but it was too much! Maybe if it was shorter, but come on, Kagome! It had more than 70 points WITH notes."

His eyes found hers and he started to sweat. She didn't look angry. She looked sad, something in her expression expressed disappointment.

Inuyasha found himself feeling guilty for making her feel bad.

"Next time just make it shorter," he declared firmly, closing his eyes and crossing his arms on his chest. Making it stupidly obvious he wasn't going nowhere.

As he waited for her reaction, Inuyasha was incredibly thankful for the fact that she was only human and there was no way she could find out what was happening inside his head.

When Kagome's fingers went back to his head-on her own, not because he had been flicking his ears in turns until she massaged them again, of course- he finally started to relax again.

Silence installed between them. It was a curious type of silence, being at the same time comfortably warm and full with things he wanted to say but didn't know how.

"You want bread?" Kagome said in a soft, slightly hesitant tone.

Inuyasha opened his eyes again, focusing on her face at the same time his stomach made a noise. With a small chuckle Kagome handed him the package.

It took him longer to find the opening of the wrapper than to wolf down the rest of the bread.

"This bread is fucking good!" He said before licking the plastic.

"It's really good, yeah."

After he finished cleaning the package, his eyes found the window. The light from outside told him it was late afternoon. He had planned to finish the bathroom's business around noon. He was at least several hours late.

"I should fix the shit in the bathroom, right?"

Kagome brushed a strand of his silver hair as she answered, "I already cleaned it."

Inuyasha jumped off her lap and sat beside her with a confused frown. "You did?"

Kagome stared at his face trying to decide if the emotion behind the surprise was good or not. She didn't know the man enough to be sure that the wide eyes with lowered brows meant he was just surprised or he was angry. The only way to know was by giving him the opportunity to talk.

"Yes. After I pulled you here," she answered and winked at him playfully, "which was definitely more difficult than scrubbing the bathroom."

Inuyasha huffed kneeling beside her. "I can take care of my own fuck up! You didn't have to do that!"

Kagome's eyebrows went lower at the same time the man's volume and attitude went higher.

"Hey! I was just trying to stop us from suffocating here!" she had turned her torso in his direction as she spoke without raising her voice. "I mean, not wanting to end up in a hospital, how do I dare!"

Kagome saw the moment his shoulders slumped and his ears went lower, even if his tone didn't change as he talked. His eyes darted to the side and the rest of his body told her he didn't want to fight... at least she hoped.

"Keh! Whatever!" he spat before mumbling, "I still could've done it myself! I'm not a fucking pup."

Kagome's arm stretched out to reach his thigh but stopped midway thinking how it could be misinterpreted as if she was trying to baby him. "Hey! I know you could, it was just a thing of who could do it faster..."

Seeing how his ears perked and he gave her a quick side glance, Kagome got a little bolder.

"I mean you were out like a light... but if you have that much of a problem with not doing your share of chores... you can help with mine."

Inuyasha made some kind of approving sound in the back of his throat before turning to her and speaking in a challenging tone "I can do that shit!"

He shot to his feet looking around. "What do I do now?"

Kagome raised her hands and wiggled her fingers. "For starters, help me up."

And he did. He ignored her hands and reached down to take her shoulders and pulled her up with an ease that had her giggling and holding his arms not to stagger back.

"Ohh that was fast!"

He gave her a very smug smile with one of his fangs peeking out. He took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest, looking very pleased with himself.

"Now what?"

"Now..." she opened her lips to tell him that laundry needed to be done but remembered they hadn't had lunch yet. "We could grab something to eat."

Kagome had never seen him be in disagreement with getting food and this was not the exception. He nodded and walked to the door.

"Come on! Let's get food! I'll buy."

Kagome tried to keep her poker face on as he looked at her, first with a slight frown when she didn't move and then with narrowed eyes. Slowly his cheeks flushed under her stare.

"Bu-but this is because you did that! It's not a date or shit like that!"

Kagome guessed that it was important for him to make it clear because of his girlfriend. It was important for them, as roommates, to keep the boundaries clear and being friendly without a romantic undertone. But even like that it was fun to tease.

Kagome took her hand to her chest and declared with monotonous voice. "Understood. Not a date or shit like that, just a thank you lunch. Very clear. No room for confusion. You and me not dating. Got it."

"Good," he mumbled with a confused face.

The woman walked to the door, where she had thrown her purse when she came home. Picking it up she said, "Alright, hurry up. I'm getting hungry and I want to start our so-not-a-date soon."

"Whachu talking about? I'm ready."

Kagome pointed at herself. She was wearing a simple shirt and yoga pants. "I think that for a date this is good enough... But I feel a little overdressed to have a just-lunch with you, dogboy..." the sentence was left open as she pointed to the only article of clothing he was wearing: black boxers.

"Fuck! Wait here!" He mumbled more things on his way to his room, one of the things he said sounded suspiciously close to 'smart ass'.

She only repeated "I'll wait here."

-.-.-.-.-

Soon they were on their way to the best ramen shop he knew that didn't involve walking half an hour. It was not his usual go-to shop but the food was decent. Unfortunately, the owners were not.

"The owners are rude fuckers. Just ignore them and enjoy the food. They might be assholes but their ramen is really good."

Kagome nodded. "Understood. Keep calm, do not engage in fights with the rude owners and enjoy the food on this not-date," she said with a smile before looking back to the front.

It was making him uneasy how she kept repeating the this-is-not-a-date remark. He didn't know if he was supposed to be grateful or offended by the gleeful way she talked about it. The words had come out of his mouth that time because her amused eyes made him nervous and not knowing what was going on in her head and why she was almost laughing at him made him think it was a good thing to say.

Now he knew he was an idiot. She had been laughing at him because of his boxers.

"Hey! Don't worry about it. I'm sure we're gonna enjoy the food!" she nudged his side with another smile.

Before he knew it, she was talking, telling him the correct way to clean the bathroom, and he started defending his idea. It was not a bad one, just the execution sucked.

He opened the door of the restaurant and breathed in the delicious aroma of the ramen. The idiots really knew how to cook.

"Hey mutt, we don't serve scraps here, check in the alley!"

"Fuck you, Manten." he said with a bored voice as he waited for Kagome to follow him inside.

Together they walked to a table in the back. From the corner of his eyes he could see Kagome looking around the shop.

"Wachu think?" he asked when her eyes finally reached him again.

"It's cozy... I like it." The smile that accompanied her words made him feel at ease.

It was not like he really cared about what she thought about the place. He didn't even care about if she wanted to be there or not. He really didn't care! It was a good place to eat ramen even if she didn't think so.

Manten, the younger brother, walked towards them with a wicked smile on his ugly face. The man was still in his teens but his youth was only fuel for his stupidity.

"So, you got a girlfriend, dog." The man let out a barking and breathy laugh. "I always thought the one with the rat tail was your boyfriend."

Inuyasha just said, "He ain't that lucky. And she is just a friend. So fuck off, Manten. Just take the order."

The man muttered something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "Fuck you, half breed," but he continued with a much louder, "I knew that she didn't look stupid enough to go out with you...What are you going to order?"

The youkai turned to Kagome, who was just staring at him with a frown. "I'd like you to be polite to your customers-"

Inuyasha's ears perked up and his eyes went wide as she said her request and became even more surprised as Manten visibly stopped moving as she spoke.

"-you are making me uncomfortable," she continued with that velvet-covered-iron voice she had.

Manten blushed under her stare, with his eyes averted and mumbling something that Inuyasha couldn't quite follow. Instead of turning to Inuyasha again or pressuring Kagome to make an order, Manten turned his huge body away and walked inside the kitchen.

Inuyasha had to contain a chuckle as he heard Manten asking his brother to take over his work because he couldn't deal with the woman outside. And he heard Hiten's refusal; it took them a couple of minutes before a visibly pissed off Hiten came through the kitchen door.

"What did you do to my little brother?" he asked looking directly to Inuyasha.

The hanyou was ready to tell him to piss off when Kagome spoke with that 'you will listen to me right now' tone she had.

"I just told him he was being rude and he was making me uncomfortable, Hiten. You really need to teach him manners."

Two things shocked Inuyasha at that moment: Kagome knew the asshole's name and said asshole seemed to be slightly ashamed.

"I know your mom didn't raise you like that. It's a shame that you let your brother be rude, and worse, being rude to your customers..."

Hiten, who had always had a caustic retort for everyone, stayed quiet. Not even offering an excuse for his brother's behavior.

A shout came from the kitchen, "You tell her, Brother! She ain't even pretty enough to get away with insulting me!"

Hiten's face change in a second, contorting in anger. He turned to the kitchen and a thin light came out of his hand flashing to the kitchen, from which a pained scream came.

Before Hiten could offer some kind of explanation for his behavior Kagome smiled at him, and with her chirpy voice she said, "I want to try your most delicious dish. Surprise me!"

Hiten nodded, turned to Inuyasha and asked if he wanted the usual, to which the hanyou only had the presence of mind to nod.

When Kagome turned that smile to him and looked at him expectantly, Inuyasha realized that he had slowly leaned away from the table until his back was in full contact with the back of his chair. He cleared his throat and made a big show as he stretched his back and arm to make it look more natural as he went back to his usual elbows-on-the -table posture.

As if she hadn't just reprimanded the owners of the place, Kagome looked around as she said, "I really want to taste their food!"

"I hope they don't put anything weird in it," he grumbled, only half-joking.

The fact that he could hear the brothers talking in the kitchen and Manten kept whining about his brother listening to a stupid woman as Hiten remained silent made him curious about the relationship between the elder brother and Kagome. Quickly he started to make his math in his head. Hiten was easily five years older than him, and he was older than Kagome... or at least he thought he was.

Without thinking it through he asked, "Oi, how old are you?"

Kagome raised her eyes from the menu that she had been inspecting with her brows arched. "Wh- oh! My age?" She smiled as if she found his question amusing. "Why? You want me to start using honorifics with you?"

Kagome closed her eyes and waved a finger in front of her face. "Quoting you, I have to say 'I ain't doing that shit'. you're my roommate and we are equals."

Inuyasha pushed the waving finger away as he huffed. "I don't want that kind of shit! Just asked a question. Answer the damned question, woman!"

Kagome raised two fingers in one hand and made an 'o' with her other one. "I'm twenty years old," she said with her smile still in place.

Inuyasha went back to his math work. She was two years younger than him, that meant at least seven years younger than Hiten. That meant they were not ex-some-kind-of-romantic-shit, right?

He opened his mouth to ask about that when she clicked her tongue. She was regarding him with a frown and a smile at the same time. And he had no idea what that meant. "Well~?" she asked with a voice slightly higher than usual.

"Well, what?"

She huffed, "How old are you?"

Inuyasha felt his cheeks tingle. "I'm twenty-two."

He reclined back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest waiting for her questions about why he was still taking fifth semester classes it he was supposed to be already finished with it. But the questions never came. She had stared at him with that weird expression that made him think she knew what he was trying not to tell her. The silence that followed was something weird for Inuyasha. Usually he was the one that refused to talk to the others or the one that ended conversations via grumbling or growling.

The silences went on as Inuyasha tried to find a way to ask her about her relationship with Hiten without making it weird.

Inuyasha was going to try a simple 'How you know the asshole?' question when Miroku's voice sounded in his head.

"A good way to let a woman know you want to bed her is to ask her about herself, maybe about other guys... that way she knows you  _want_ her."

He wanted to curse. He was not trying to... to do  _that_  with Kagome. She was his roommate and she was his friend. It was only curiosity because of the weird reactions the brothers had to her! It was not because he felt attracted to her!

He was going to ask her in a way that she didn't think was flirting!

Kagome stared at her roommate for a few seconds before she kept admiring the small shop. She had realized how uncomfortable he had felt during her conversation with Hiten and Manten and had expected him to ask as soon as they left, but instead he had started to glare at her in intervals, mumbling something she couldn't understand when his eyes weren't on her.

Mentally shrugging, Kagome decided he would talk when he wanted to talk and she focused on the delicious scents coming from the kitchen.

"So!" he started, making her jump with the tone that was almost a shout. "You know-"

His words were interrupted by the brothers coming from the kitchen.

"The food is here!" she announced when they placed it in the table.

"For the mutt, the usual non-spicy, double noodle serving pork ramen. For Kagome, the seafood miso ramen."

Kagome smelled the food and hummed. "It smells delicious, thank you."

With a nod, the brothers went back to the kitchen without another word. She knew what was going to happen next, and she narrated inside her head.

First, the smell-smell routine. Head close to the plate and taking small and rapid sniffs, inspecting the scents. Kagome wondered if his sense of smell was better than a dog's but had never asked him because any mention of his youkai half made him angry. The second thing was the chopstick work. He would stab the plate a couple of times, then make a couple of circular motion to end up picking a big chunk of food and lift it to his face. Then in a very quick motion he would take most of what was in the air in one mouthful. Sometimes chewing a couple of times, sometimes just biting and swallowing.

After he gulped down the first mouthful and made a contentment noise, Kagome knew he had liked it. Without wasting another moment, she started with her own routine.

She was not even halfway through her ramen when she started to feel eyes on her, which was weird because once her hanyou friend had food in front of him, everything else faded into the background. Kagome looked up and found his golden eyes focused on her.

The first thing she did was point at her ramen and ask if he wanted some. His "nah" hit her as weird, he never refused any kind of food, ever.

"What's wrong?" she asked with her brows arched.

"Nuthin," he said quickly.

Shrugging again, she kept eating her food. A few moments later his voice distracted her again.

"So... you know Hiten's family."

Even if it was not formulated as a question, something in his tone made her think he was expecting an answer and Kagome nodded without looking at him, too busy fishing a crab leg from the broth. "Yep, I know them."

"So..." he started again with the same strangely neutral voice, " you knew his mom."

Kagome swallowed another mouthful of ramen and nodded. "I knew her for a long time before she passed away."

For some reason Inuyasha looked angry, and Kagome wondered what could have made him angry in the last five minutes. When he started to speak again he was glaring at her.

"And how did you meet her?"

Kagome studied him. His brows were furrowed and his ears were turned in a way that reminded her of a dog in a threatening position. Did he think that it was dangerous for her to be friends with the brothers? Was he angry because she said something to Manten?

Tilting her head, she explained, "She was my fourth-grade teacher."

Inuyasha scoffed, "That doesn't explain how you know Hiten and Manten, stupid!"

His tone rubbed her in a wrong way and she answered with a loud exasperated tone, "You didn't ask how I knew them! Stupid!"

His eyes widened and he remained immobile for a moment before a bright pink covered his cheeks and his eyes drifted to the side.

"If you had ASKED," she started with a slightly softer tone, "I would have told you that she was the reason why I wanted to study to be a teacher, so I went back when I was in high school to ask for advice... but she was already sick and I started to visit her at home, where I met Hiten, Manten and their little sister Souten. Happy?"

Inuyasha had stopped moving, with his ears draped on his head and his eyes staring at his empty bowl. And as she suspected, his expression promptly transformed into a scowl and he shared an eloquent "keh!"

He remained quiet as she finished her food, with his eyes looking at everything around but her. Kagome wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or just sulking. But if she had learned something in the few weeks they had been living together, it was that if you wanted him to say something the best strategy was to stay silent until he said something.

He kept his words to the minimum as he paid for the food and they walked out of the restaurant, even when she thanked him for the food. Besides a short, "Yeah, whatever. I owed you," there was nothing.

They were a couple of blocks away from their apartment, walking side by side, when Inuyasha nudged her shoulder. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his face looked up with his ears twitching nervously. He nudged her again with his shoulder.

"What?" she asked with a chuckle.

"You wanna grab ice cream."

Again, it was not said as a question but his eyes drifted to her face for a moment and his twitchy ears perked and pointed at her.

Kagome blinked at him a little confused. "I like ice cream, but you don't  _owe_ me food anymore."

He turned to her with a glare, but his voice was surprisingly soft. "Fuck that! You want ice cream or not?"

She raised her hands in surrender, "Alright, we're getting ice cream."

"Come on, I know a place," he said with a smile. "I'm gonna get us some ice cream".

Kagome smiled at his back. Every day she found another reason to smile when she was around him. Yesterday was the way he would use his leg to scratch his ears while playing video games. Today it was the roundabout way he apologized.

As she watched him wolf down his third ice cream cone, she knew that being his friend was always going to be some kind of adventure.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The obnoxious sound of a fist repeatedly hitting his door woke him up. It was the only school day he didn't have to wake up early and he never, ever, set an alarm because of it.

With a series of "fucks" and "inconsiderate people" he walked to the door, noticing Kagome's room was open and she had already left for school. He growled low when he reached the door. Before opening it, an idea flashed in his head. The stupid pervert was still not allowed to visit, so maybe this was his payback.

"I swear, Miroku, if this is one of your stupid ways to fuck up my day-" He unlocked the door and turned the knob "-I'll fucking-" he swung the door open, "Gut... you-u-u..." his voice fade to silence and he froze.

"That certainly doesn't sound like fun for this Miroku," a gentle voice commented.

Inuyasha knew he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but just by looking at the small woman in front of him, he knew who she was.

Her face resembled Kagome, the soft smile was almost identical too. But it was the bright, grey eyes that screamed this woman was Kagome's mother.

"May I come in, dear? These are a little heavy," she raised the grocery bags and without thinking Inuyasha reached for them.

The woman happily handed them over and the next thing he knew was that the woman's hands were on his ears. SHE WAS MASSAGING HIS EARS!

Inuyasha could feel his face getting hotter but he wasn't sure if it was because he was outraged or because he was actually enjoying it. Did her family have some kind of special power when it came to massaging ears?

"I'm sorry, dear, but you have the cutest ears I have ever seen!" she gave him a little pat in his arm and walked inside.

Inuyasha's bewilderment only grew when the woman walked directly to the kitchen and said, "You look like you haven't had breakfast. I'm going to make some for you, come and sit down, dear."

As he walked to the closest chair to her, Inuyasha didn't know why he could only picture a man swimming into the ocean pulled into the deep by invisible currents, but strange enough he was not afraid.

**To be continued...**

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> I know it has been too long, more than a year since I updated this story and I'm very sorry! I'm trying to work faster and not taking this long to publish the next chapter.  
> This chapter is where we see Inuyasha trying to be the best version of himself in a very Inuyasha-way. And we see Kagome's mom do what she did the firs time she I hope this chapter was worth the wait.  
> Thank you so much for reading, also thank you for liking and leaving a review.
> 
> Love,  
> Nanna


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